Page 271 - The extraordinary leader

248 • The Extraordinary Leader

Use Powerful Learning Methods That
Change Behavior

In the past, we have conducted development programs in which people are
given general instruction with one of four objectives:

1. Theory/knowledge. In this approach, we pour information into a
funnel over the tipped head of the participant. One assumption is that
“if people knew better, they’d do better,” and all we need to do is fill
their theory bins. Another way to express the assumption is, “The
more information the leader possesses, the better will be his or her
performance.”
2. Insight. This approach assumes that leaders are produced
through developing greater self-awareness. What is wrong with
leaders is their lack of self-insight and their flawed inner feelings
and thoughts.
3. Inspiration. This approach assumes that leaders need an infusion of
enthusiasm and motivation. Performance is deficient because of a
deficiency in commitment. This is the one place and time where
someone may hint at the opportunity to be great, but the nature of
inspirational programs is their short half-life. No mechanisms are built
to maintain the enthusiasm or lock into place new resolutions. For a
detailed discussion of how a leader “inspires and motivates others to
high performance,” refer to our subsequent book, The Inspiring
Leader. 11
4. Skills. This developmental approach assumes people need to be able
to do things that they have not been able to do or to do things better
than they have been doing. The outcomes of these programs are
longer-lasting, but their objective is seldom expressed as “hitting the
ball out of the park.”

We submit that if our objective is to build great leaders, our developmen-
tal processes must undergo major transformation and be built on a radically
different mind-set. The mind-set must be one of expecting high performance
from nearly everyone. With that we should insist on hard work and tenacious
engagement in all they do. Hard work will then produce significant improve-
ments in performance.